just found an unaired pilot episode of TBBT in a dark corner of the 'net, and I found it very interesting. It seems to have been produced just to pitch the show to the networks, long before the actual production of the first season. Read on if you'd like to know what happened in this "prequel":
- It is dated "5/01/06", over a year before the show started airing
- The theme tune is a rather bland 80's new wave track, the lyrics solely consist of a man saying "Science!". According to Wikipedia, it's from Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science". The visuals are different too, the words "The Big Bang Theory" are arranged in the style of a formula, with other formulas floating around in the background. Oh, how I love the Barenaked Ladies.
- It starts in the sperm bank like the actual pilot, this time though they have "completed their assignments". It is revealed that Sheldon is anything but asexual, but instead is kind of a big butt fetishist. You can watch a version of this scene on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nbklP90KKM - this clip seems to show some in-between version of the opening scene, it's neither the one in the unaired original pilot nor the one used in the aired pilot.
- On the way from the sperm bank to an Indian restaurant they meet Penny - no wait, she's called Katie here (played by Amanda Walsh). She's sitting in the gutter, on the phone with her mother, obviously homeless after another bad breakup. Sheldon and Leonard offer to buy her dinner. Well, Leonard does, Sheldon isn't thrilled about the idea.
- I'm glad they eventually went with Kaley Cuoco as the female lead (Penny). This Katie is extremely unlikeable, negative, repulsive and just wrong. Bit of a skank. Hated her.
- Leonard seems to disagree with me here, he invites her back to the apartment to stay for a couple of days. Again, Sheldon isn't too happy with this plan. Her discovery of the boards in the apartment leads to the "beautiful mind genius" conversation we know from the aired pilot. And again, the blond chick hits the shower.
- The apartment looks different to the one we know: doors, sofa, desks are placed differently. And they got a fireplace.
- There's no Howard, no Raj, but a nerdy female colleague of L & S named Gilda who feels threatened by Katie's presence. It turns out she has the hots for Leonard and is fantasizing about marrying him and having kids. I wasn't too convinced by neither the character nor the actress: just a liiiittle too much overacting.
- Katie goes out drinking (Gilda wouldn't allow Leonard to join her) and returns at night to change clothes. She meets Leonard and tries to explain her current emotional situation in "his language: nerdish", on the whiteboard. Leonard suggests her constant failures might be her own fault, and that she just tries to blame others for her misfortune. This scene is on YouTube:
YouTube - Big bang theory - Amanda walsh pilot
- The next morning, Katie and her stuff are gone. Leonard goes to see her at work (she's working at a beauty salon) and tries to apologize for what he said the night before. Nothing much happens apart from some unnecessary vomit jokes.
- Back at the apartment, Gilda spills the beans about her and Sheldon having had sex (!!!). It was at a Star Trek Convention, they were in costume, and of course Sheldon was a vulcan during mating season.
- The episode ends with all four of them going out dancing, which in the case of the three nerds leads to some bewildered looks, as their "dancing" involves jumping around in spasms.
All in all, I'm happy they changed a lot of things before the show finally started airing. The tone, the mood was a bit darker in this unaired pilot, and not just the tone: the episode looks like they couldn't afford proper lighting. It's amazing how something so great and polished as TBBT started out as something so crude. Sheldon and Leonard are as good as ever, though.
Check out what Wikipedia has to say about this episode:
The Big Bang Theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia